This invention relates to a new and improved propeller clutch bearing for use with a rotating propeller shaft.
Prior art discloses the use of bearings in combination with seals to support a propeller shaft for use in water. These combinations may employ a bearing that has a plurality of circumferentially spaced staves which engage the propeller shaft for maintaining support only. The present invention is directed to a bearing unit that provides support for the propeller shaft and also permits the interruption of rotation of the propeller while the drive shaft to the propeller continues to rotate as where the propeller should strike an object and is prevented from rotating. Ordinarily under these circumstances, either the propeller blades are broken or the engine will stall out thereby interrupting the power to the propeller, thus preventing the propeller from damages. In this latter instance, generally sufficient damage is done to the propeller to thereby make the interruption in power a meaningless operation. A further feature of the present invention is that in addition to protecting the propeller, the bearing unit itself is also protected from damage. Such action is assured by a unique construction in the bearing member, which employs a rubber-TEFLON interface which because of the rubber member being in compression allows the unit to drive as well as slip under certain conditions of torque. The bearing unit employs an annular rubber torsion type member wherein the torque applied to the drive shaft is transferred to the annular rubber member which winds up as a rubber torsion spring to impart rotation to a sleeve and the hub of a propeller. The rubber torsion member is an elongated flat annular ring which provides contact over a large circumferential area to transmit the load through the bearing unit as it is maintained in its axially aligned position by guide means.